Connecting catalytic organizations with transformative leaders.
Approach
We started IGNITE AGENTS because executive search for a dynamic economy requires greater agility, enhanced capabilities, and a fresh lens on leadership.
We deliver with partner-level expertise. Ensuring seasoned judgment shapes every step—from defining the role and aligning stakeholders to creatively sourcing talent and securing the right leader for long-term success.
We operate with purpose-built agility. Enhancing our work with modern tools and enhanced capabilities, we’re free to be creative, expansive, and adaptive as we place leaders across diverse and complex environments.
We share your values. Weaving shared values into every conversation and consideration, we ensure the process reflects the integrity of your organization and culminates in a leader who embodies your values and amplifies your impact.
We draw on a diverse network of relationships. Recruiting exceptional leaders requires the nuance of expertise, the rigor of research, and networks cultivated over decades and constantly refreshed.
Team
Insightful. Thoughtful. Discerning. Trusted partners for complex, high-stakes leadership search.
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Karen leads multi-sector executive searches — from early-stage startups and high-growth scale-ups to industry leaders and social impact organizations. For nearly two decades, she has recruited senior executives and board leaders in innovation-driven sectors, building leadership teams through multiple market cycles.
As a former operator, Karen brings firsthand knowledge of what it takes to build, scale, and lead. She’s built 0 > 1 revenue streams for multiple, venture-backed SaaS startups, consulted on go-to-market strategy and product-market fit for digital entertainment startups and leading consumer brands, and took a health-conscious consumer beverage from concept to market with early U.S. distribution. She began her career in global finance with ABN AMRO in Taipei.
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Debbie leads global executive searches in both the private and public sectors, from Fortune 100 companies to universities and government agencies. She recruits senior executives across all functions (CEO, CFO, CHRO, General Counsel, Chief Legal Officer and Board Directors) in a wide variety of industries.
Before co-founding IGNITE AGENTS, Debbie was a Partner at a boutique executive search firm, and spent over six years as a Managing Director in Major, Lindsey & Africa's in-house practice group. Prior to executive search, she was in-house counsel for Marriott International and served as General Counsel of an international restaurant chain. She began her career as an Associate at Troutman Sanders and Reed Smith.
Debbie is actively involved in the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia. She received a BA degree from McGill University and a JD from Washington & Lee School of Law, where she was on the Editorial Board of The Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice. She serves on the Boards of the Washington Project for the Arts (Co-chair of Governance Committee) and Norwood School (Vice-Chair & Chair of Committee on Trustees).
Practice
We operate where mission & innovation converge. Our deep presence in these dynamic spaces gives us early insight into emerging priorities, trusted access to leaders, and the context to navigate complexity.
Our work spans the functions that shape strategy, finance, governance, product, marketing, data and engineering.
Sector Concentration
Climate & Sustainability | Consumer, Lifestyle & Brand | Healthcare / Digital Health / HealthTech | FinTech / Financial Services | Philanthropy & Social Impact | Real Estate & Infrastructure |